11/16/12

I often hear people say “I can see how a Facebook page can work in a B2C (business to consumer) environment but not in a B2B (business to business) environment” and have often said it myself. Twitter and LinkedIn are a great way to network with other businesses and business owners so how can you add Facebook into the mix?

Well now you can like and tag other Business pages as your own page rather than your personal profile, complete with separate newsfeed and message inbox.

By ‘liking’ another business’ Page as your business page rather than your personal account you’re creating a relationship with them which you can build on overtime by interacting with their page, commenting on and liking posts etc.

An additional benefit is that Facebook cross promotes other business pages as “Recommended Pages” so if someone has liked your page it shows up on their page!

You can also tag other business’ in your updates. This post with them tagged will show up on their timeline which will gain goodwill from them, build a relationship and strengthens your brand.

So How Do You Do It?

To change from your personal Facebook to your business page, go to the arrow next to Home in the upper right hand corner, and find your page in the drop down menu.

You can then browse Facebook as normal, under the persona of your page! You can comment, write status updates, add photos, send messages, like status updates and photos, all under your Business’ name – SIMPLES!

So come on why not give it a go and what better page to test it on than liking our facebook page – and we promise to like you back!

10/26/12

In April Google released it’s Penguin update. This was aimed at weeding out poor quality links and websites that have over optimised anchor text on the links. This has had far reaching affects both to the owners of the websites that have lost substantial traffic and the SEO industry in general.

We posted a blog in June about how to recover from the Penguin update and one of the most obvious things to do is to remove these poor links but that is easier said than done as by the very nature of these poor links you are unlikely to receive a response to any request to remove these links from the offending sites. So Google have release the disavow tool which can be found in Google Webmaster Tools and allows you to upload a list of URL’s so that any links from there will be discounted in Google’s ranking algorithm.

Good news you may say….. well yes hopefully but we can see immediately how this tool may be open to abuse.

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction

Google are constantly updating their algorithms with the intention of providing their customers with the best search results possible. But for every tweak they make someone will find a way of exploiting this. Years ago when blogs first started to appear Google saw a link from a blog as being very powerful as they were seen as links coming from a site which was somebody’s personal opinion and therefore very relevant. The result of this was that a cottage industry set up with sites where you could go and buy blog posts with a link for specific anchor text on blogs with a Page Rank of your choosing – the higher the Page Rank the higher the cost of the link.

The value of a lot of these sort of links have long been discounted by Google but the Penguin update has pushed things to the next level by ensuring that these links actually poison your site. One of the main concerns about this action by Google is that it opens the door for people to negatively affect the rankings of their competitors by creating sites and creating over optimised links to their competitors sites.

The problem with the disavow tool

So Google have released a tool to help us get rid of those pesky links surely that is a good thing isn’t it? Well apart from the fact that by using this tool it could be seen as an admission of guilt by Google there are a number of other concerns within the industry. Yes you can only use the tool within Webmaster Tools where you are the verified owner of the domain so that prevents other from using the tool to discount your links but it opens the floodgates for sites that have made it easy to get back links to be penalised, web 2.0 sites, forums, blogs with open comments etc and if those sites have been penalised that bad ‘link juice’ with flow through to any sites that have links from them even if they were genuine comments, forum threads etc. It also allows for competitors to build links to their site from a site that you have links from and then disavow them and negatively affect your rankings.

So what should I do?

In terms of your competitors using this tool and the penguin update to negatively affect your site that isn’t something you have a lot of control over and it is Googles lookout to ensure that this issue is kept to a minimum. But if you’ve received bad links warnings, been denied reconsideration or been penguinised then this tool gives you the opportunity to get things back on track, but be careful, use conservatively and only use as a last resort after the normal channels of communication to try and get the links removed have been exhausted.

If you don’t have a Webmaster Tools account which is imperative to running a healthy site, or you would like any help with any of the issues discussed here or then give us a ring on 0115 896 7715

04/20/12

You’ve probably heard a lot about the new cookie law that is due to come in on May 26th 2012. But what exactly does it mean to you and what do you need to do as a website owner to comply with it and what might happen if you don’t?

In 2009 the EU who are responsible for a number of totally crazy directives that don’t seem to benefit anyone passed yet another ridiculous directive regarding cookies. A directive isn’t law but it forces member states to create their own laws. All the member states were meant to do this by 2011 but this one is so ridiculous that only a couple have complied so there was a stay of execution. It is being brought in to try and protect peoples online privacy by ensuring that when someone visits a website they are aware of how that site collects information about them and allows them to choose whether it happens or not.

What Is A Cookie

Cookies can take a number of forms with the 2 main ones being session cookies and persistant cookies and 92% of websites use them. Session cookies are stored in a computers memory only during that browsing session. They allow the browser to remember details, for instance when you fill in a multi-page form it ensures that the information is carried from one page to another and any preferences that you set are retained. This information is automatically deleted when the browser is closed or is inactive for a certain amount of time. These are essential to our everyday browsing and are the basis of how functionality like shopping carts operate. They have a session ID and aren’t personally identifiable, they don’t collect information from the users computer and aren’t really of concern regarding privacy.

Persistent or permanent cookies on the other hand are stored on your hard drive by a website and are not deleted when the browser is closed. When you visit a website your actions and preferences are recorded, packaged up into a cookie and then stored on your PC so that when you next visit that site the information can be retrieved and amongst other things they are used to analyse the behaviour of the individual on the website, pages visited, how long they spent on each page and how many times they revisited the site etc. They are usually configured to be retained for long periods of time and it is these cookies that are of concern when it comes to privacy.

Isn’t The Internet A Spooky Place

As you surf the web you may have come across a lot of spooky coincidences. You’re interested in buying a certain car for instance and go and have a look at it on a website. Then over the next few weeks you’ll see an ad for that car pop up all over the place. “Wow that’s spooky”, no it’s not that’s a well placed cookie! Google remarketing allows you to show ads to people who have visited your site across the whole of their display network, which comprises all of the sites where you can buy Google ads such as AdSense, DoubleClick Ad Exchange partners, YouTube, Google Finance, Gmail, Google Maps, and Blogger! An exceptionally powerful advertising medium as I’m sure you’ll agree and if you’ll like to learn more about Google Pay Per Click advertising then drop us a line and we can have a chat.

So What Does This Mean

Not all cookies are of concern but the 2 main areas are for tracking website statistics and for targeted ads. As a website owner you have the following options:

1. Stop Using Cookies – this is just not practical. Tracking visitor statistics using a package such as Google Analytics is essential for improving your visitors experience on your website and the value of your website to your business. It is a ‘win win’ situation and allows you to analyse which pages people are interested in and which they are not and constantly improve your content and asess whether your users are primarily on mobile, tablets, high resolution monitors etc and allow you to fine tune your website to benefit the user. We are just touching on the benefits of analytics to both you and your user and to do away with this information would cause internet development to totally stagnate. If you don’t have analytics on your site then ring us on 0843 289 0120 or email us and we can get it set up straight away.2. Ask For Permission – you could do this in a number of ways but they are all intrusive and annoying and guaranteed to put your visitors off your site. We have come a long way since the days of being bombarded by pop ups and do we really want to go down that route again? The ICO who are the office for data protection and freedom of information have a banner at the top of the site asking for your permission to use cookies before you enter the site and a link to another page which displays details of their cookies. But you will notice that even if you don’t tick the checkbox to give your permission you can still navigate through the site! This makes a complete farce of the whole thing – does that mean you can put it in tiny letters tucked away in the footer of your site? So all this leads me to the 3rd option.3. Keep Calm And Carry On – not complying to the law could carry a maximum fine of £500,000 but it is unlikely this will ever be enforced and if it is it will be with a high profile site such as the BBC. I wouldn’t possibly dream of advising you to break the law but feel that most people including myself will ‘sit it out’ and see what happens. In my opinion cookies are an important aspect of the modern day internet that benefits us in so many ways and to be without them would leave us with nothing to dunk in our tea!